Poetry Anthology Archives - Elizabeth Barton

The Hooghly Review Takes Centre Stage

The Hooghly Review takes centre stage as their latest publication trends on X and Grok crows ‘Global talent takes centre stage’: read it on X.

And what talent! 400 pages of richly inventive work, from playwrights, authors of flash fiction and short stories to poetry. The Hooghly Review is a feast. And it’s all available to read here: The Hooghly Review – Issue 3 — April 2024

I’m very excited to have a new poem included, Icarus Flies. It’s an honour to share my work with a wealth of talent. I managed to squeak in before an early sudden deadline – the Hooghly Review is madly popular and drew an avalanche of submissions. It was a lolly scramble to get work in, let alone accepted.

About the Hooghly Review

The magazine is an exciting new publication from India, with an eclectic approach and international reach. Its popularity is evident from the accolades it attracted in 2023.

I cannot remember how I stumbled upon the Magazine – possibly cruising on X, which is where I usually find networking and publishing opportunities. Prompted by a hunch, I decided to throw my hat in the ring and before long received a friendly email from the editors to say they were willing to take Icarus Flies.

Icarus Flies – What inspired the poem?

The inspiration would make a story in itself! Essentially, it’s a take on the rumours of a Stock Market crash. The hero of the poem, Icarus, is some hapless financier who finds himself down on his luck. Vivid tales of doomed investors leaping from buildings swelled the Internet. My Muses leapt upon the idea, galvanized by the discovery that Sappho was not only a celebrated poet who supposedly threw herself from atop a cliff. She is also a little known asteroid who maps the heavens with clues for the vicissitudes of the Stock Market. She is the fear and loathing creeping in the collective consciousness governing the impulse to strew ruination in finance. The Muses relished the idea – and being Greek in looks and temperament, got to work.

The Muses’ Torment

For a week my Muses harangued me with chortling ribaldry. It was the underpants scene, I’m sure. Imagine two Muses, dressed in flowing chitons and gleaming curls, sashaying into my studio, snorting with suppressed laughter. Like girls. The banter between them generated the poetic material.

I had no peace until I wrote the last stanza of the poem, by which time I was equally mirthful. It’s not that the poem is especially funny. But the Muses have a quirky humour which is impossible to describe. Except that it’s madly infectious and by the end I saw the joke. Sappho is by some divine prank the instigator of the consequences of financial greed. The lovers’ leap so beloved of the poet takes on a bizarre new meaning.

Without further ado, I present the poem as it appears in Issue 3:

And finally on an upbeat note, one of my poetry heroes, Sanjeev Sethi, sang praises for my poem.

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Flight of the Dragonfly

The Flight of the Dragonfly Poetry Journal is the creation of two UK poets, Barbara Mercer and Darren Beaney. I stumbled upon the Flight of the Dragonfly and E-Journal on X, my go-to place to network all things poetry. Aptly named, the collaboration entails Spoken Word events held in Brighton and Zoom workshops, in which I became involved. It began in November 2022 when I put forward my name to read my poem The Miner’s Triumph at their online Spoken Word. Afterwards, I joined the Flights Writers and thus began the journey through numerous workshops and publication with the Flights E-Journal.

Fly Dragonfly Airways!

The workshops involve a 12 hour difference as the participants are all UK based. I’m the only foreigner! It’s like international travel but without jetlag. As I sit in a predawn gloom still clad in pyjamas, I converse with poets and watch the evening sun pour in through the windows of their homes and offices. A feast of accents flavour the discussions. I’m in England! Poetry – about maps, travel through exotic lands and unlikely adventures – become a conveyance of flight. A virtual airplane; a dragonfly of supernatural import!

Flights E-Journal

Inspired by a mid-winter stay at Okoroire Springs near Tirau, I wrote Alone at Dusk. It is a dreamy contemplation set within the womb-like enclave of secluded hot pools for which Okoroire is famous. To reach them, one must walk through a long forest path to a gate, whereupon an electronic key admits the visitor to the inner sanctum at the bottom of fern-lined steps. I sank into the inviting warmth, steam floating above the dark water, and gazed at the sapphire sky, Venus a bright sentinel above a line of trees. After a while, all the other bathers left and I was alone to journey in spirit as all poets do. Night softly descended. I spent two hours in heavenly solitude.

Sharing the poem on the Flight’s platform becomes a voyage, inviting visitors from abroad to partake in the magical Okoroire Springs – through words where one may sink one’s virtual body in the womb-like warmth of the Springs without leaving their living room. Or inspired, perhaps one day to travel in person to the very place.

**A view of the magical Okoroire Springs from the nearby Waihou River.**

Issue 10

Alone at Dusk is one of three poems published in Issue 10 of the Flights E-journal, which may be found here, and winged their way into the world in October 2023.

The Shape of Bliss

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The Summer Stickleback

Th Summer Stickleback from Hedgehog Poetry Press

The Summer Stickleback is here! Continuing with Seasons in Poetry, Hedgehog Poetry Press has released its Summer Stickleback as a free download. It is the second anthology in a series of four. My poem Spring Day featured in the first of Seasons in Poetry.

The poem Inflorescent is among my favourites and graces the Summer edition. Never before published, it features among a select gathering of works from stellar poets worldwide. The Collection contains nine works from authors to create a shoal of poetic outpourings about all aspects of Summer. It initially appeared on Hedgehog Poetry’s website at the Solstice, in our midwinter when I was dreaming or busy creating elsewhere. For the reader who wants to feast their eyes, here it is.

The Inspiration for Inflorescent

The poem came after spending time in the Coromandel, when, on our last day, I saw a lone pohutukawa on a hillside still ablaze with flowers when all other trees had faded in the dry, parched summer. The pohutukawa is an iconic tree native to New Zealand and flourishes along the Coromandel coastlines. Many cheap reproductions of pohutukawa trees crowd the walls of beach baches for the delight of visitors. Naturally, one might shy away from an overused subject, but there is no escaping the unique beauty of the flame-red trees edging turquoise blue coastlines in high summer. I have composed a number of poems after visiting the magical wilds of Coromandel, and the mood and atmosphere linger in the words whenever I read them. Two of them, Relic and Orchard Vignette, haunt the collection in All Revolutions Begin This Way.

The Poet’s Hideaway

The secret summer hideaway in the wilds of Coromandel.

The Coromandel is rich in history and legend and was the centre of New Zealand’s Gold Rush in the 1860s. The real attractions are the Waitaha Dream Paths which lace vast tracts of hill and valley. As a poet, I have discovered two of them. But their secret remains with me!

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The Stickleback Experience

The Stickleback is a bijou pamphlet unique to Hedgehog Poetry Press. I have wanted forever to see my poetry in a Stickleback collection.

The Stickleback pamphlet is a bijou creation unique to Hedgehog Poetry Press. I have wanted forever to showcase my poetry in a Stickleback collection. At last, I have my wish. Over the years, individual poets have tantalised readers with four flagship poems for the Hedgehog pamphlets, bound in an aesthetically appealing format. As usual with Hedgehog publications, the booklets come with watermarked endpapers and beautifully hued covers to create an immediate impression featuring the iconic fish on the front cover. Each of the colours used on the covers represents the shade of a classic car, perhaps revealing the editor’s passion! The collection is an attractive introduction to any poet’s work.

Stickleback Anthology: Four Seasons in Poetry – The Poetry of Spring

For this Collection, Hedgehog Poetry has produced an anthology on the theme of Spring, as part of a Four Seasons series published in 2023. I am delighted that my poem Spring Day features among the works of 14 other poets for this issue. Its release coincided with the Vernal Equinox of the Northern Hemisphere. You may download it here.

My only reservation is that it is available exclusively in PDF form. The culmination of my dream wish is to see the Spring Stickleback as a printed leaflet. There is nothing quite like holding a book in your hands, being able to smell the subtle imprint of ink and feel the freshness of the pages. Perhaps a genie may grant that wish in the nearish future.

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Hidden in Childhood: a Unique Anthology

Why is Hidden in Childhood so special? It is an attractively original concept and possibly never conceived in such a form. Generously filled with works from poets worldwide, Hidden in Childhood is a bumper crop of some 450 pages. Many books cover the topic of childhood, but this is a dedicated collection in which myriad experiences and memories encompass the spectrum of human experience. From the most painful and tragic to exquisite memories of pinnacled joy, the book cannot fail to elicit powerful emotion.

The editor, Gabriela Marie Milton, invited contributors to share their thoughts on what the anthology meant to them. I wrote: ‘I knew at once this book would tremendously impact our society and the literary world – it is a unique concept. It is an honour to have my poems in the collection alongside many great talents.’

**The Moon is a Time Traveller in rough draft.**

The Editor describes her work as a lovingly crafted Collection. Emerging poets share their outpourings with well-known authors. A monumental anthology in which ‘every poem sends shivers down your spine’. Childhood’s joy and trauma expressed – with stunning talent and sincerity – by over 150 poets in more than 280 poems’. … ‘Over 150 voices call you to read this book’. … ‘You will be reminded of the beauty of the seraphim …’

I foresaw that the book would be a huge success. It quickly reached #1 on Amazon Poetry Anthologies on the first day of publication.

It was a joy to return to some of my childhood haunts to relive the recollections that wove a delicate tapestry for my poems.

The poet reads Nineveh from Hidden in Childhood

Find out where to buy Hidden in Childhood here.

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Poetry Anthology